Thatcher: Forty Years On

[droodzilla]

Are you rejoicing today or cursing her name? Was Thatcher's election a bright new dawn, or the beginning of a dismal series of events that led, ultimately, to the Brexit crisis.

I take a balanced view: the Thatcher era had both positives and negatives.

The BBC Parliament channel is repeating its coverage of the 1979 general election for most of the day. Fascinating, if only to contrast the political and media culture then and now.

 

[SteveS1]

Awful, shockingly bad. Only made slightly less raw by some of the current crop.

 

[slavedata]

Started the run down of the British Economy, especially manufacturing base, that we are still witnessing. Brexit should finish it off nicely. Theme park Britain left.

 

[droodzilla]

Interesting to see the SNP vote collapsed in 1979, given the partty's current hegemony in Scotland.

 

[sean99]

What were the positives?

 

[blossomchris]

It was not so much of why she shut the mines, but how she did with no concern for others livelihoods and its effects on communities

Bloss

 

[tuga]

 

[Cheese]

Sorry to read this. But had Labour stayed in power, they would have shut the mines 10 years later. At best.

 

[richardg]

Sorry to read this. But had Labour stayed in power, they would have shut the mines 10 years later. At best.

Read Bloss's post.

 

[bor]

Catastropic for society, brilliant for Indie bands.

 

[Rob998]

Catastropic for society

What are you talking about? There's no such thing as Society, didn't you get the memo?

 

[Tony L]

<moderating>

Sweary posts removed, obviously.

 

[Weekender]

Metaphorically stamping.

 

[richardg]

<moderating>

Sweary posts removed, obviously.

Thatcher is a swear word. What's this thread doing here still?

 

[Tony L]

Catastropic for society, brilliant for Indie bands.

Agreed, though good for computer geeks too; the BBC/Schools Computer Literacy project was an amazing thing that has left a simply huge legacy. It was too late for me, I’d left school by that time, but to this day I meet so, so many people who started their successful IT careers on a BBC Micro (and the ZX Spectrum they got at home if their parents couldn’t afford the Beeb). Thatcher for all her faults fully grasped the significance of the computer revolution and helped democratise it via this project. It is one of the key reasons the UK is still such a global player in software design, games design, computer architecture (e.g. ARM etc, which is a direct descendant of the Beeb and can be in every iPhone, Raspberry Pi etc) etc. So much dates back to this education initiative. It is also worth noting that IT education went through a really dark period in the Blair years with many schools only teaching dull office chump stuff (MS Word, Excel etc) rather than proper programming.

 

[stevec67]

It was not so much of why she shut the mines, but how she did with no concern for others livelihoods and its effects on communities

Bloss

This, absolutely. You may need to amputate a leg to save a life, however you don't do it with a chainsaw while cackling and then leave the patient to bleed to death. That's what she did, and for that she will forever be damned.

 

[maxflinn]

I remember buying my first record around the time of that election. Oliver's Army by Elvis Costello, bought from a little record shop on the Belgrade Road in London. They'd let my friends and I listen to the latest chart hits using headphones in there every Saturday morning.

What a time to be alive, even as a ten year old.

 

[claire.foxx]

What she reputedly did to soft scoop ice cream was inexcusable. Making a minister out of the stuff was downright creepy. I discovered she also researched saponification (soap-making) and now I think I know what she had in mind for the working classes...

‘One unemployed oik can make enough raw material for half a bar of soap...’


Incidentally right now is a great time to be in a punk band - especially if you’re a woman.

 

[Frankiesays]

Catastropic for society, brilliant for Indie bands.

Another thing we can blame Thatcher for!

 

[kendo]

Just occasionally the iron mask slipped...

...revealing it's inner malignancy...